An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (1999) Online

A monster is terrorising the city. Fievel and Nellie Brie, a brilliant news reporter, set out to discover the truth. Tiger and Tony lend a paw.

I loved the villain, a psychotic poodle named Madame Mousey and also the banter between Nellie and her boss, Reed. Tiger has good moments too. The characterisation is what makes this sequel a success. The previous one, Treasure of Manhattan, fell down on this.

I like the songs in this film. You can't hum them afterwards but that doesn't mean they're necessarily bad.

Don't let the third film put you off. There's a lot of enjoyment to be had here for young and old.

8/10

While this film is not as teeth gratingly bad as "The Treasure of Manhattan Island", this straight to video story hopefully marks the end of the Fieval franchise. Without the luxurious artwork or star vocals of the cinema films, the blandness of the regulars is all too obvious. There's a small respite for older viewers in the newspaper office scenes because they are based on films such as "His Girl Friday" but the wit isn't sharp enough to cut mozzorella. Oh yes, most of the characters are named after cheeses (ho ho!) As with all video sequels to cartoons, the songs are hopeless pastiches of the Disney formula and I was forgetting them mid-song. The mystery of the title manages to be sub Scooby Doo in its simplicity. In short, only watch this film if its a choice between this or its predecessor.

Story/Plot - The Mystery of the Night Monster, and I am very glad that I did. This is pure cartoon animation at its best before we got into the world of CGI and HD. Even thought this was released in 1999 and technology was booming then, this film ranks as one of the best in cartoon from that time (that is my opinion). I feel if we used today's technology to remaster this it will ruin that experience of what a pure cartoon is.

Right onto the film itself. We follow on the adventures of a young mouse called Fievel Mousekewitz (note the pun in the surname) and his family and friends. This is the fourth instalment in the An American Tail series.

A terrible monster has started to terrorise the mouse city and is mouse napping (excuse the pun) the residents. Fieval scared from all of this is having nightmares and can hardly sleep until one day his parents make his sister take him to work at The Daily Nibbler (again note the pun) where Fieval meets the wonderful reporter Nellie Brie (a cheese reference there, mmm brie on crackers, hold on better get back to the review). Fieval joins Nellie on her travels to get the facts about the monster and to help Fieval counter his fears.

The encounter the psycho poodle named Madame Mousey (I don't see a pun involving mice there) who little do they know is the mastermind behind the mystery withe the help of a gang of mouse hungry cats. Fieval is helped along his journey by his friend Tony Toponi and a cat called Tiger who is actually a massive coward.

Once they know that Madame Mousey is the spearhead for the mysterious monster Fieval, Nellie, Tony and Tiger take on the pooch and her feline friends to save the city from being eaten. The cats are chased out of town by a the dog high counsel and Mousey is returned to her owner which is a higher punishment for her than being put in the dog pound. The mouse community can live on happily and with no fear once again!!

My verdict - The characters have been written in to this in a way that compliments the screenplay to the highest degree. the actors who are the voices for the characters are able to get into their character so well and their voices match the personality set to the character.

I recommend the whole series of An American Tail to everyone of all ages. This is not just a family film but a fun, thrilling and action filled cartoon. I urge you to rent this, buy this or watch online legally via a reputed rental/film site.

So are there any redeeming qualities? The voice acting is pretty good with what they have, the villainess Madame Mousey was an enjoyable character(Cat R.Waul is my favourite American Tail villain though) and the film moves quickly. However, An American Tail:The Mystery of the Night Monster is not good at all for a sequel I feel, and I also feel it is the worst of the American Tail franchise,the best of course being the original. There are several reasons why I found this so.

One was the very simplistic story, that not only took a while to get going but was very predictable as well. Secondly, the songs are completely disposable, none of them memorable in any way. Thirdly, the script is incredibly juvenile and make you grit your teeth in its sheer banality. Fourthly, the animation is not good, at all, instead it is very flat with choppy editing. Fifthly, the characters don't have their likability any more, Fieval is now more annoying in alternative to sweet, and Tiger is no longer funny despite the fact that the late Dom DeLuise voices him. Sixthly, the ending is a real let-down, very rushed I felt.

Overall, not absolutely awful, but forgettable and charmless. 3/10 for the voice acting and villainess. Bethany Cox

An American Tail 4: The Mystery of the Night Monster: This movie was made in 2000, this is the 4th an american tail movie out of the series. So far there has not been anymore an american tail movies yet. But i hope there will be more after 3 years (2000 - 2003) I have loved an american tail just as much as the land before time. in it's 17 years an american tail has produced 4 movies and the land before time has produced 10 movies in it's 15th year and yet there is more to come for the land before time, but what will be in store for an american tail. We'll have to find that out in the future. I give An American Tail 4: The mystery of the Night Monster a good score 8 out 10.